Film writer and viewer system

Abstract

A film writer and viewer system operable to reduce the exposure requirements of the writer and thereby extend its life by providing a pre-exposure lamp to increase the density of the film to a first value and by providing an image enhancer on the output of a video camera viewing the film to increase the contrast between the information on the film and the background for subsequent viewing.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A film writer and viewer system comprising: energy producing means to expose energy sensitive film to a first predetermined density;   writer means to expose said film to a second maximum predetermined density with information to be viewed;   developer means to develop said film;   transducer means mounted to receive energy indicative of the information from the film and to produce an output representative thereof; and   enhancing means connected to the transducer means to receive said output and to increase the contrast of the information so as to produce an enhanced output with greater contrast of the information recorded on said film by said writer means.   
     
     
       2. Apparatus according to claim 1 further including film moving means to move said film past the energy producing means, the writer means, the developer means and the transducer means in sequential order. 
     
     
       3. Apparatus according to claim 1 further including display means to receive the enhanced output and to display the information. 
     
     
       4. Apparatus according to claim 3 further including a light source for directing light to said film and thence to the transducer means. 
     
     
       5. Apparatus according to claim 4 wherein the transducer means is a video camera which produces signals of a magnitude indicative of the intensity of light received from the light source via said film, the operating region of signals representing information being different than the operating region of other signals and the enhancing means increasing the voltage of the different operating region signals more than the other operating region signals to produce the enhanced output. 
     
     
       6. Apparatus according to claim 5 wherein the display means is a television monitor. 
     
     
       7. Apparatus according to claim 5 wherein the system includes an infrared radiation scanner to receive infrared information and produce a driving output connected to supply the information to the writer means. 
     
     
       8. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the writer means is a multiple beam CRT writer. 
     
     
       9. The apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said film consists of a dry silver type film. 
     
     
       10. The apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said film consists of a photographic film. 
     
     
       11. Apparatus including writer means and transducer means for use in recording information on energy sensitive film without over driving the writer means, comprising: lamp means for pre-exposing the film to a first density, the writer means thereafter further exposing the film with the information between the first density and a second density, the second density being less than normally required exposure density;   developer means for developing the under exposed film to produce an image of the information with a less than desired contrast, the film thereafter being viewed by the transducer means to provide signals indicative of the image; and   image enhancer means connected to receive the signals from the transducer means to increase the gain of those signals representing the information so as to increase the contrast.   
     
     
       12. Apparatus according to claim 11 further including film moving means to move the film sequentially past the lamp means, the writer means, the developer means and the transducer means. 
     
     
       13. Apparatus according to claim 11 further including television monitor means connected to the image enhancer means to produce an image of the increased contrast information. 
     
     
       14. Apparatus according to claim 13 further including input means operable to supply information to the writer means. 
     
     
       15. Apparatus according to claim 14 wherein the writer means is a CRT writer, the viewer means is a video camera and the display means is a TV monitor. 
     
     
       16. Apparatus according to claim 15 wherein the input means is an infrared scanner. 
     
     
       17. The apparatus according to claim 11 wherein said film consists of dry silver type film. 
     
     
       18. The apparatus according to claim 11 wherein said film consists of photographic film. 
     
     
       19. The method of decreasing the intensity requirements of a film writer operable to expose an energy sensitive film with information comprising the steps of: A. presenting the film to a pre-exposing lamp to expose the film to a first level;   B. presenting the film to the writer to expose the film to a second level which is less than desired;   C. developing the film to a less than desired contrast between the information and the background;   D. viewing the developed film with a video camera to produce a series of output signals wherein signals representing information being viewed have a different operating region than other signals but have less magnitude than desired; and   E. increasing the magnitude of the signals representing information in the different operating region more than the other signals to increase the contrast between the information signals and the other signals to compensate for the less than desired contrast.   
     
     
       20. The method of claim 19 further including the step of presenting the increased magnitude signals to a TV monitor for subsequent viewing. 
     
     
       21. The method of claim 20 further including the step of connecting an infrared scanner to the writer to supply the information thereto. 
     
     
       22. The method of claim 20 further including the step of projecting light through the developed film for viewing by the video camera. 
     
     
       23. The method of claim 20 further including film supply and take-up means and wherein said method removes undeveloped film from the film supply past the pre-exposing lamp, the writer, the thermal developer and the video camera in sequence and stores the developed film in the take-up means. 
     
     
       24. The method of claim 20 wherein said photographic film consists of dry silver type film. 
     
     
       25. The method of claim 20 wherein said photographic film consists of photographic film. 
     
     
       26. Image enhancing apparatus comprising: a television camera viewing an image provided by photographic film wherein said film contains information placed thereon by a CRT writer and developed by a thermal developer, to be displayed with satisfactory contrast, the camera producing a signal V in  representing background and information to be viewed but wherein the magnitude of those portions of the V in  signal representing information being less than desired with respect to the magnitude of those portions of the V in  representing background;   non-linear enhancer means connected to receive the V in  from the camera and operable to amplify those portions of the V in  signal representing information which are not within a predetermined region representing the background signal region by an amount greater than the enhancer means amplifies those portions of the V in  signals which are within said predetermined region so as to produce an output signal V out  in which the magnitude of those portions representing information is greater than the magnitude of those portions representing background by a desired amount; and   receiving means connected to receive the output signal and operable to produce a viewable signal wherein the portions of the signal representing information are sufficiently greater than the portions of the signal representing background to provide satisfactory contrast in viewing.   
     
     
       27. Apparatus according to claim 26 wherein said film is pre-exposed by a pre-exposure lamp prior to having the information written thereon by said CRT writer. 
     
     
       28. Apparatus according to claim 27 wherein the receiving means comprises a video recording device. 
     
     
       29. Apparatus according to claim 27 wherein the receiving means comprises a TV monitor.